


invisible string  [ harvey dent x omc ]

by riddlersboyfriend



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Twins, Angst and Feels, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Canon-Typical Violence, First Meetings, Gotham City is Terrible, Homophobia, Inspired by Taylor Swift, M/M, Post The Dent Act, Post-Movie 2: Dark Knight (2008), Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Two-Face - Freeform, harvey dent lives, he's a gangster now, let's pretend the dark knight rises didn't happen, work with me here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:01:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27997191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riddlersboyfriend/pseuds/riddlersboyfriend
Summary: "time, curious time, gave me no compasses, gave me no signs- were there clues i didn't see? and isn't it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?"~Harvey Dent's life effectively ended when his girlfriend, Rachel Dawes, died at the hands of the Joker. Now, as the murderous villain Two-Face, he is ruled by his coin and wrecked sense of justice as he sets himself up to become one of Gotham's most notorious crime bosses.Dent makes a business deal with the Joker, who's been involved with petty crime since he broke out of Arkham Asylum. Joker robs a bank, Harvey provides the men he needs to do it, and gets half the money. What Harvey isn't prepared to get from the Joker is the male, spitting image of Rachel kneeling at his feet, hands in the air and shaking like a leaf in the wind.
Relationships: Harvey Dent/Original Male Character(s), Rachel Dawes/Harvey Dent
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	invisible string  [ harvey dent x omc ]

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i'm spencer, and this is my first work in this fandom. i love nolanverse batman so much, and i just took an interest in the character of harvey dent/two-face. especially what would have happened if he'd survived TDK. 
> 
> blanket content warnings for this fic: swearing, violence, some heavy angst. 
> 
> also, take a listen to taylor swift's song "invisible string" to get a decent feel of the relationship in this fic. you'll notice, as i write more on ao3, that i tend to have spotify playlists or specific songs for everything i write. music's a big inspiration for me, so i hope you don't mind! 
> 
> constructive feedback and criticism is always welcome. <3

There is total silence for a split second in Gotham General Bank when a gunshot pierces the air. 

"Hands up! Nobody move!" a man shouts. Six men in black, with clown masks on, block the exits, standing and aiming their guns at the people in the bank. 

But of course, somebody _does_ move- some poor soul screams and tries to stand. Another _bang_ and her body hits the floor, blood staining her white blouse. Her kid starts screaming, a little boy who looks maybe six years old, at the oldest. A man, who has been pressed up against the register until now, darts forward and pulls the kid back, clamping a hand over his mouth and murmuring quietly in his ear. 

From behind the men in masks comes a man wearing a purple suit. His greasy, scraggly hair is dyed green, and on his face is smeared clown makeup. His face is painted white, the area around his eyes black, and his mouth- and the scars stretching out from each end of it, are in red. He walks as if he has nothing to worry about- no tomorrow to face. And in a way, he doesn't. 

He is the Joker. The maddest of madmen in Gotham who had gotten free of Arkham Asylum just a month earlier, thanks to the Dent Act. An insane killer clown with a maniacal laugh that would haunt your dreams. Capable of violence beyond measure. Everyone knows his name and his face. 

Michael Dawes really has forgotten how crime-ridden Gotham is. 

Michael, called _Mikey_ by his friends, had moved out of Gotham at seventeen, after being ostracized from his family because of his sexuality, because he was gay. He had returned, two months before, only to discover that everything had changed. And Gotham is not the same city it was all those years ago. And now, he is sitting, back to a bank register, with his hand over a little boy's mouth to make sure he doesn't get them all killed.

The boy is an absolute mess, and Mikey doesn't blame him. He's lost his family, too- he knows the shock and fear the kid must be feeling. It can only be amplified as the Joker comes ever closer. 

"Sh, shh," he purrs in that low, smooth voice of his as he grows closer to the pair of them. "Shh. It's alright. It's okay." But there isn't any consoling him- and certainly not by a man who looks absolutely deranged. Mikey ducks his head and gently rubs the boy's upper arm in an attempt to get him to quiet. 

"Are you his father?" 

Mikey's head shoots up- the question is aimed at _him._

"No," he says, and it comes out as a rough whisper. "No, I'm not." 

"Hm," Joker says, watching him with a intense, smoldering gaze that makes his skin crawl. He notes, rather absentmindedly, that the Joker's eyes are a dark brown, almost black color. "You know, you look like somebody I once knew," he says, voice suddenly louder and more boisterous. He turns and motions for his men to begin the robbery, but stays in front of Mikey and the child. 

"What's your name, sweet cheeks," he asks. 

"M-Mikey," he answers, cursing himself internally for stuttering. 

"Mm-hmm. You look _just_ like her. I bet ol' Two-Face is gonna love this." 

"Like- like who?"

"Harvey's _squeeze_ ," Joker grins. "Too bad she went kablooey. Batman can't save everyone." 

Mikey furrows his brows- who the hell's 'Harvey', and who's Two-Face? And why can't Joker just kill him now and get it over with? He's sure death would be better than staying under the gaze of the murderous clown. He doesn't know what he wants, because even though he and his men are robbing a bank, he doesn't think Joker cares too much about money. What does Joker want with him? 

"What do you want," he whispers. 

Joker doesn't reply. He just wrenches the little boy out of Mikey's grasp (which just sets him off again) and grabs his arm, pulling him toward the doors of the bank. He's muttering under his breath the whole way, and Mikey can barely breathe. 

"You wait in here," he instructs, opening the door to a black van with tinted windows. Mikey clambers inside, because he's got no choice, and Joker closes the door behind him. 

In the silence, Mikey allows himself to panic a little. A crazy guy in clown makeup has just thrown him into a van and told him to _wait,_ which could mean any number of things. He apparently looks like someone only labeled by the Joker as "Harvey's squeeze", and he doesn't even know who Harvey is. 

Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he thinks about what the Joker could have meant. The only person he thinks he looks like would be his sister, Rachel. But she died, eight years ago, and although he wasn't told until after her funeral, she died in a freak accident involving an abandoned building. And he never knew about anybody named _Harvey_ in her life.

Then again, he didn't know she was dead until two weeks after the fact. His family never tells him anything. 

He and Rachel were identical twins. They shared everything, right down to their physical features- the same shade of their brown hair, the same high cheekbones, and the same eyes (although Mikey's were always more green-brown, while Rachel's were hazel-brown). She was the only person in their family to accept him when he came out, and to protest against their mother when she kicked him out for it. It didn't work, obviously, but the fact that she _did-_

Now is not the time to start bawling, Dawes, get it together. 

The doors to the van slam open, and three guys are hauling duffel bags of cash into the trunk. The other three are getting into the van- one hops into the driver's seat, with Joker sitting shotgun. Mikey gets his row of seats to himself. Nobody asks about why Mikey's with them. Probably out of fear.

A few minutes later (with a police chase narrowly averted), the van pulls up outside a hotel. Everyone gets out, Joker pulling Mikey out of the back with surprising strength. And as the seven of them walk into the hotel, no one bats an eyelash. And Mikey stays silent. 

The three men who weren't carrying anything before stay in the lobby, masks still firmly in place. The rest of them go up with him and Joker in the elevator. Joker hums with the elevator music on the way up, something that Mikey has to stop himself from laughing at, simply out of panic. 

Joker has him by the arm again as soon as the doors open. This is the penthouse floor, by the looks of it, and Mikey stumbles to keep up with the clown as he walks. Two goons at the penthouse double doors let them through without any words spoken. 

"Harv! Do I have a surprise for _you,_ " Joker calls. To his men- "Drop the bags and blow, would ya?" 

Mikey keeps his eyes on the floor, letting his hair fall in his face as he listens to them follow his directions. 

"Joker," a deep, almost raspy voice says. "Who... is this?"

"Your surprise, of course!" he replies, and there's a bit of a pause before his paint-caked fingers are gripping Mikey's chin and lifting his head up. "There." his voice carries a lilt of satisfaction. Mikey's blood runs cold as he realizes- this was never about _him._ Or who the Joker said he looks like. This is about _this_ guy. He wants to dig at him, get under his skin, and Joker's using him to do it. " _Now_ we can see you better, hm?" 

Mikey squeezes his eyes shut, trying not to have a full-blown meltdown. The gravity of the situation is just hitting him now, full in the face, and he struggles not to cry. 

"Open your eyes, pretty boy," Joker says in a sing-song voice. A moment passes. Then his voice drops to a growl. "Open up." Mikey jolts in his grip, eyes flying open. He feels Joker's laugh from beside him more than he hears it, because he's looking at the man sitting a few feet away from them. Half of his face is burned, covered in scars and torn flesh. Parts of his face and head boast second and third degree burns. But the other side is not. The other side is the face of a probably once-handsome man- blonde hair, a strong jawline, blue eyes. 

Their eyes lock, and Mikey sees his mood shift from confused to full-on rage. Joker just laughs a little quieter as he aims a kick at the backs of Mikey's knees, sending him to the floor, and walking away. He's out of the room and the doors close, with an ominous _thud,_ behind him. 

Mikey pushes himself back to his feet, fully aware that he probably looks pathetic. In a nervous gesture, he brings a shaking hand up to his face to brush his hair out of his eyes. The scarred man on the chair looks away, jaw and fists clenched fitfully. 

"L-look, I'm-" he starts, but the man stands suddenly and crosses the room to where Mikey stands. And he just _looms_ over him, since he's taller and bigger. 

"Who are you," the man growls, eyes pinning Mikey to the floor. 

"M-Mikey Dawes," he stutters. He swallows hard to try and stop a sob from spilling out. 

"Dawes." 

"Y-yeah," Mikey nods, feeling like an idiot. He's missing something. This is all connected somehow, and he's missing it. Oh well. He'll figure it out later when he's sure this guy won't kill him where he stands. 

"Would you know-" the man's voice has gotten quieter, less angry and less deep, his gaze fixed on something behind me- "A woman named Rachel Dawes?" 

"My twin sister, I-" Mikey starts, but he is shushed quickly. 

"She never told me she had a brother," he says.

"I haven't been in Gotham since I was seventeen," he anwers, tripping over his words a little. "Cast out by the family, and all that." 

"Why?" 

He frowns at the question. "Because I'm gay. Why?" Mikey lifts his chin and declares, "If you're going to kill me, do it. You don't need to know anything about me-" 

"I'm not going to kill you," the scarred man interrupts. 

"Then why am I _here_?" 

A sigh. "The Joker likes to piss me off. Always has. He brought you here, probably because you look like Rachel." 

"Why?" Mikey asks again. And then his brows furrow and he says- "He said I looked like 'Harvey's squeeze'. You... you have to be Harvey, then. You and Rachel must have been together." 

The other man frowns. "You didn't know?" 

"Know what?" 

"We _were_ together," he explains. "She was going to be my fiance. Until she died in an explosion that was part of Joker's _plan._ And Gordon could have stopped it. But he didn't." His voice descends to an angry snarl at the end. Gordon- Jim Gordon, the police commissioner. He's starting to put two and two together. 

"I didn't know she had a fiance." Mikey whispers. 

"I didn't know she had a twin." 

"We should start over," he takes a chance and puts his hand out. "I'm Michael Dawes. My friends call me Mikey." 

For the first time, the blonde man smiles (he's handsome when he smiles, Mikey notes) and shakes his hand. "Two-Face. My friends call me Harvey." 

"Hey, Harvey." 

"Hello, Mikey." 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked this! if you did, consider leaving a comment or a kudos! they give me the motivation to continue writing. also- i've decided i'd like to take requests for this fandom! drop a comment with a pairing and/or an idea for me to write! 
> 
> thank you for reading! 
> 
> \- spence


End file.
